Building an acoustic guitar traditionally requires several different woods, but in select cases, the guitar body can be made from just one wood. Hawaiian koa trees produce wood with the versatility to make single-wood guitars. They also have the potential to be harvested sustainably.

Many guitar makers source wood from pristine forests in exotic locales. But instruments don’t have to come at the expense of ecosystems. A six-part blog series explores how to build a guitar sustainably, piece-by-piece. This first installment looks at Sitka spruce from Alaska's Tongass National Forest.